


Hive Mind

by eternalscout



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: BDSM, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-01
Updated: 2013-09-01
Packaged: 2017-12-25 06:45:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/949935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternalscout/pseuds/eternalscout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Newt is convinced he and Hermann are still experiencing side effects from their drift with the Kaiju brain. Hermann believes that having a "feeling" doesn't count as quantifiable data.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hive Mind

The first few weeks following the close of the breach passed in a blur. Though it was kept quiet Newt and Hermann had drifted with the Kaiju, they were still integral to their defeat. It bothered Newt that he never reached the rock star status that Raleigh and Mako had, but he and Hermann were the perfect targets for the networks and journalists that couldn’t book the others.

Newt was accustomed to running on little more than caffeine and inspiration. As much as he thrived on interaction with others, it was a relief when the interviews and appearances died down enough for them to return to the Shatterdome and have some time for themselves.

The Shatterdome was still occupied, though most of its former inhabitants had moved back to wherever they’d come from. It was only the necessary personnel that remained. Well, them and the ones who had nowhere else to go. Having spent so much of his time and energy on Kaiju biology, by the end of the first day back Newt was convinced he was more the latter than the former.

It wasn’t that he didn’t have the means to go elsewhere. The money he had made touring, in addition to the funds provided posthumously for his contribution to preventing the apocalypse, was more than enough. Not only that, but the scientific community was still clamoring for his time. Part of him knew there would be no shortage of engagements now or perhaps ever. 

He should have been happy. The problem was that he wasn’t.

The K-Science lab was emptier than it had ever been since its construction. The equipment and chalkboards were all still there, but they were obsolete now. There would be no more Kaiju to dissect and preserve and no need for equations to predict their movements. Most of the specimens Newt possessed had already been disposed of. Only the well-preserved had survived.

Newt stood on Hermann’s side of the lab, his disheveled appearance the result of a sleepless night rather than his manic energy. He hadn’t bothered to comb his hair. It was long after midnight. No one was awake anymore. Hell, he hadn’t even changed out of his clothes from the day before, leaving his white button-up creased from where he’d tossed and turned. He rolled the sleeves back up from where they’d fallen. Without his glasses, he couldn’t see more than the blurred colors of his tattoos. The calculations on the chalkboard in front of him were a little easier to decipher, but only those nearer to the ceiling.

Sleep had never come easy for him, though it had been easier the past decade. Newt would work himself to exhaustion in the lab, only to be woken up by a prod of Hermann’s cane. As much as Hermann griped about his drool covering important documents and about his insistence that Hermann’s desk was the more comfortable one, Herman had never woken him before he’d been fully rested.

Newt turned from the chalkboard with every intention of trying to wear himself out by wandering around the Shatterdome only to trip, sprawling across the floor with a grunt of pain. Slipping on rogue Kaiju entrails was one thing, but Hermann always kept his half of the lab spotless. Newt picked himself back up, rubbing at his eyes and wondering how he could feel so exhausted and yet not be able to sleep. He used the corner of the small crate that had tripped him for leverage as he stood, though he paused when he realized it was one of many. Fatigue sloughed from him and he had the crate in his arms in an instant, stumbling out into the hall in his hurry to make his way down it.

Their quarters weren’t far from the lab. Really, they were more like closets than those of the pilots. It hadn’t mattered since he and Hermann had never had the same amount of downtime between the Kaiju attacks. Newt took a sharp right and shifted the crate to one arm so he could pound against the metal door of Hermann’s room, not caring that the sun wasn’t even close to rising. When the door didn’t open immediately, he pounded harder, the side of his hand aching with the force. The door jerked open and he only just managed to avoid pounding on Hermann’s face. Hermann flinched back, but Newt caught the sleeve of his nightshirt, preventing him from falling while simultaneously jerking him close enough so he could shove the crate against his ribs.

“What the hell is this?!”

“Dr. Geiszler, it is three o’clock in the morning,” Hermann snapped. “Unless the apocalypse is once more a real possibility, I suggest you do what any rational person would and go back to bed!”

“Answer the question, Hermann! What the hell is this?!”

“Do not call me that!” he retorted, yanking the crate from his grip with one hand, while the other remained firmly wrapped around the handle of his cane. His eyes dropped to the crate and Newt didn’t need his glasses to know he sneered as he said, “I should think it was obvious.”

“Obvious?!” he demanded, snatching the crate back. “So, what? You were just going to leave?!”

“Stop with that incessant screeching!”

“That’s what this is, isn’t it? I saw all of them! You’re leaving!”

Hermann ignored him, turning to deposit the crate on the small desk he’d managed to strong-arm into the tiny room. Newt stepped in before he could slam the door, belatedly realizing this was his first time in the other man’s inner sanctum. He pushed that thought to the back of his mind so he could focus on the matter at hand. Hermann had hardly turned back around before he had his fingertip pressed firmly to the other man’s chest.

“Where the hell could you possibly be going?!”

Hermann slapped his hand away and took him by the collar of his shirt, driving Newt’s back into the wall with more force than Newt would have thought possible. It had the desired effect and for a brief moment, self-preservation won out and Newt’s mouth snapped shut.

“Leave my quarters at once.”

“Where are you going?” Newt managed, voice now at the appropriate indoor level.

“If you must know, I am going back to Germany,” he said, releasing the collar of his shirt and stepping back, angling himself so that Newt had a direct line to the door.

“What’s so important that you have to go back to Germany?” 

“I will be happy to discuss this with you in the morning, Dr. Geiszler.”

“No you won’t,” Newt said, not budging.

“Get. Out.”

“I’m not leaving, man. I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s so great about Germany.”

Hermann made his way back toward the bed, cane beating a steady rhythm. He took a heavy seat on the side of the bed and lifted the quilts from where they had been discarded on the floor in his hurry to get up. Newt eased away from the wall, cautiously approaching him. He sank down beside him fully expecting to be shoved off. When that didn’t happen, he splayed his knees apart, resting his elbows on them and weaving his fingers together. One foot started bouncing almost immediately.

“Dr. Geiszler.”

“Hermann.”

Hermann rested his cane against the desk.

“Your bed’s really soft, dude.”

Hermann offered him a withering look.

Silence was never something Newt had been good at. Growing up, church in particular had been almost unbearable. His bouncing grew more frenzied until Hermann’s hand shot out, tightly gripping his knee and forcing his foot flat. When he didn’t pull back, Newt glanced up from where he’d been trying to stare at his own hands.

“Where are you glasses?” Hermann prompted.

“Uh. I dunno. I think I left them in my room. Probably on the floor or something.”

Hermann sighed, breath lightly fanning across Newt’s face. He couldn’t have been asleep that long. It still smelled like toothpaste. He leaned back toward the desk and the world swam into vision as Hermann pressed Newt’s glasses onto his face.

“Where’d you get these?”

“You shed them like most people shed hair. I’ve been meaning to return them to you. I found them in my things when I unpacked after our tour.”

“Thanks, man. My eyes were starting to cramp up.”

“Your eyes cannot…” He trailed off with a shake of his head. “How does my returning to Germany have anything to do with you?”

The question caught him off guard and Newt’s foot would’ve started bouncing again, but Hermann’s hand tightened on his knee in warning. “I dunno,” he said. “I just thought you’d…I dunno, mention it or something. Instead of just packing your shit up and expecting me to figure it out.”

“I have been packing ever since we returned three days ago.”

“You could have said something!”

“You could have used your eyes.”

“Hey, listen here—“

Hermann cut him off with a look. “Now that that’s settled, perhaps we can both get some rest.”

“It’s not settled!”

“That would be too much to hope for, wouldn’t it?”

Newt scowled, gaze dropping to his lap and to a stain on the inside of his right thigh that he still didn’t know the origin of. “You could’ve said something.”

“You’re doing the same, aren’t you? In your haphazard way.”

“No.”

“No?”

He shifted but didn’t dislodge Hermann’s hand. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know.”

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?”

He wasn’t positive, but he swore the corner of Hermann’s mouth twitched upward.

“Perhaps you should put some thought into it. There’s no need for this building any more. They’ll tear it down as part of the reconstruction of Hong Kong. Surely you have somewhere to go.”

“No. Not really.”

“No, I suppose not,” Hermann murmured. 

Not after Newt had been all but disowned when his mother and father had seen his first tattoo. It was one of the memories they’d shared in the drift, one of the clearer ones. When he’d refused to get it removed or covered up, the rift between himself and his parents had only widened. His father had called it disrespectful to the countless people who had died at the Kaijus’ hands. People like his uncle. Newt had never seen it that way. He felt more like a storm chaser. Well aware of the danger, but still in awe of forces far greater than himself. It was respect, in a way.

Germany wasn’t somewhere he was eager to return to.

Hermann still had family there, but he had never been particularly close to his parents. The memories they’d shared of his childhood had left Newt under the impression they were affectionate but distant. More like extended relatives than mother and father. The same could be said for his relationship with his siblings.

“Everybody’s leaving,” he murmured, more to himself than to Hermann. “First Mako and Raleigh went to Tokyo, now you’re going to Germany.”

“It will be easier once you have a plan of your own.”

As surprised as he was by the consolation, Newt shook his head. “Doesn’t it bother you, though? We spent ten years on this and now it’s all gone.”

“There will be other creatures for you to study.”

“Goddammit, Hermann,” he snapped, rocketing to his feet. “Doesn’t it bother you at all?! We were part of something huge!”

“There are other problems to solve.”

“I’m not talking about that!” Newt snapped, realization dawning on him. “I’m talking about the hive mind! It’s just like Raleigh was talking about with his brother! We were inside their heads and now who knows how many of them are dead?!”

“It is not the same thing.”

“It is! It’s the same thing! I swear, Hermann, I swear I still felt connected to them! They were still in my head and then as soon as the breach closed up, it’s like…it’s like everything’s too quiet!”

“Because the voices in your head stopped talking.”

“This isn’t a joke, dude!”

Hermann fell quiet beside him, but it was a different kind of quiet. It was his thinking quiet, as Newt internally phrased it. When a minute passed and he still hadn’t said anything, Newt sat up a little straighter.

“You felt it too, didn’t you?”

“Feelings are not facts.”

“That’s why they’re called feelings,” he retorted. “You felt it too. You know I’m right. I’m not crazy.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Will you shut up?!” He scowled. “I didn’t even realize they were still there until the breach closed. And then everything went quiet. Except…”

“Except what?”

“Except for you.”

“That’s preposterous.”

“No, it isn’t.” He turned, dislodging Hermann’s hand in the process. “It’s not. It’s not like when we were drifting, but it’s still there. I can’t explain it. It’s not like I can read your mind or anything. It’s just…you’re there. I can feel you’re there. Can you feel me?”

“I can assure you that if some fraction of your presence were still in my mind after all this time, I would have long since gone insane.”

Newt slouched where he sat, fingers tightening around each other. “You can’t feel it? It’s just me?”

“Dr. Geiszler, what you are feeling is exhaustion. You haven’t slept well in days. Worse than usual, I would say. Take something for it and that will soothe your disquiet.”

“You know what? Forget it,” Newt said, rocking back onto his feet. “Forget I said anything.” 

As much as he wanted to deny it, he couldn’t help but wonder if Hermann was right. Maybe it was just sleep deprivation talking. Or maybe it was just that having drifted twice, his mind was warped somehow. The doctors he’d been forced to see in the aftermath of everything had been convinced that the sporadic nosebleeds he experienced might not be the end of the damage he’d taken from his homemade Pons system. They said it was too similar to the early stages many of the first pilots had experienced. That more seizures and who knew what else could come to follow. Regardless, it had been worth it. Even if he wasn’t the rock star he’d seen himself as, he’d stopped the apocalypse. Sure, the pilots had done their part too, but he was the brains behind the brawn.

Newt started toward the door only to pause as he reached it. “How’d you know I haven’t slept well in days?”

“The bags under your eyes were clue enough.”

The spark that had rekindled in him was smothered and Newt left the room, leaving the door open in favor of slamming it. He didn’t make it more than a few steps. Not when he realized Hermann’s leg was bothering him more than usual. No. No, it wasn’t. That was him projecting. Not that it stopped him from turning around to gently close it so Hermann didn’t have to get back up.

 

\---

By the end of the week, the crates on Hermann’s side of the room outnumbered the few belongings that had yet to be packed. They hadn’t really spoken since that night, though Hermann had made a few attempts. Newt hadn’t been able to get up the energy for bullshit conversation about the weather or the reconstruction effort. They’d been back a week now and Newt had managed only a few hours of sleep for that entire span. He could hardly think let alone do much else. 

He’d tried a sleep aid like Hermann had suggested, but his sleep hadn’t been any more restful. Instead he’d had nightmares. One had been about him being chased by a Kaiju. The others he couldn’t remember so well. He swore that in one he was back in grade school, but it hadn’t been his school. It had felt more like a boarding school. He’d been chased there too, but the only monsters in that dream had been a group of boys with faces he couldn’t put names to.

Hermann would probably be gone before another week could pass. Newt put what energy he had into starting to pack his own things. He still didn’t have a destination in mind. He’d considered staying in Hong Kong, but he didn’t want to have to deal with the reconstruction. It was just another reminder of how that part of his life was over. Going somewhere new was probably a better bet. Maybe Japan.

His packing wasn’t neat like Hermann’s. He’d settled on larger crates, throwing things in and taking time only for fragile items, wrapping them up in whatever paper he could get his hands on. Hermann had stopped leaving any documents laying around when he realized where the missing sheets had gone, but he’d never demanded them back.

Exhaustion weighed heavily on Newt and his movements grew more sluggish. He’d filled up two of the crates by the time Hermann entered the lab. He saw the other man’s lips move in what he assumed was a greeting, but the words were too distorted for him to make them out. Like Hermann was further away from him than he actually was. Newt suddenly felt like he was falling, the world rushing past him before it blacked out entirely.

The next thing he knew, there was a soft beeping sound that wormed its way into his consciousness, pulling him from what felt like the best sleep he’d ever had. It took more effort than he would’ve thought to open his eyes. The room around him was blurry but bright. He blinked a few times, trying to clear his vision. A hand came in his line of sight, pressing his glasses back onto his face.

He was in a hospital room. Even if he hadn’t been in the bed with who knew what shoved into his arm, he would’ve known that. The room made an effort at comfort, but it was too clinical for that. The walls were too white and the lights were too strong. He turned his head, startled to find Hermann seated beside him. His face was pinched, like he’d eaten something sour. Basically his usual expression, just a little more exaggerated in Newton’s opinion.

“It’s about time you woke up,” he offered by way of greeting. “You have slept for nearly two days.”

Newt tried to answer, but his tongue felt like it was stuck to the roof of his mouth. Hermann held out a cup of water, easing the straw between his dry lips. Newt sucked on it, wetting the inside of his mouth enough to open it without any discomfort. 

“What happened?” he asked, disturbed to find his voice little more than a whisper. Hermann probably loved that.

“You had another seizure.”

“No way, man. I walked that last one off.”

Hermann snorted. “If we’d had the time then, you would’ve been in a hospital instead of traipsing across Hong Kong to talk to a crime lord.”

Newt shook his head and sat up much to Hermann’s dismay, judging by the hard frown he gave him. “I don’t get sick. I don’t go to hospitals.”

“There’s a first time for everything,” Hermann said, catching his hand before he could yank the IV out. He set it back down on the bed, but when Newton threatened to do it again, he caught his hand and kept hold of it, shooting him a warning look in the process.

“The doctors have your records on file. They know about the first one and about your little…experiment. They said that this seizure was exacerbated by your extreme fatigue. They’ve done what they could to get you to rest while you’ve been here.”

“So now that I’m fine, I’m gonna go check out and get back to…to work.”

“You are far from fine.”

Newt arched a brow. “Seriously, dude? Are you my mother?”

“The doctors say this could be the first of many to come.”

“Sounds like I could have the next one here or in the lab. I’m gonna go with the lab.”

“Will you shut up and listen for once in your life?” Hermann snapped. “This is not a joke. This could be a lifelong condition.”

“Will you calm down?” Newt retorted. “So I’ve had two seizures. It’s not the end of the world.” He tried to tug his hand free, but Hermann tightened his around it to a degree that made him wince.

“About what you said earlier.”

“What? Geeze, Herm, you wanna let up on that vice you call a hand?”

“Your…theory about our possibly still being connected,” he continued as if he hadn’t spoken, though he did loosen his grip minutely. “I came to the lab that afternoon because I had a feeling like something might be wrong. As soon as I stepped through the door, you fell onto the floor and started convulsing.”

Newt sat up straighter, meeting his eyes. “Are we talking about your kind of feelings or my kind of feelings?”

His lips twitched downward. “Yours, unfortunately.”

“So you felt like I was in trouble and you came running to my rescue?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Hey, I’m not the one running to peoples’ rescues.”

Hermann ignored him. “There may be some stock in what you were saying. There is a possibility that we are still connected due to your foolhardy experiment.”

“Foolhardy experiment that saved the whole goddamn world! Ha! I knew I was right! So when can I get out of here?”

“That’s your primary concern? When you can get out of the hospital? We may very well be mentally connected to one another for the rest of our lives. Who knows what that could entail!”

“You’re worried you might have another seizure too?”

“I am not the one who drifted twice with a Kaiju brain! I am not the one who may experience who knows what other side effects! You need to start taking this seriously, Dr. Geiszler. This is not the time for games.”

“You think I don’t know that? But sitting here and feeling all doom and gloom about it isn’t going to change the outlook, so stop worrying so much.”

“I am not worrying!”

“Really? Because you’re sitting in my hospital room and holding my hand, so…”

Hermann released it as if he had been burned and some of Newton’s bravado faded with the loss of the minor connection.

“I was trying to keep you from doing something foolish.”

“You want me to stay here? Fine,” Newt grumbled, the desire to fight rapidly diminishing at the realization that doing so might make Hermann leave.

“Fine,” Hermann snapped. “I shall go and locate your doctor. He will be able to better inform you on what comes next.”

“Comes next? You mean this isn’t the end of it?”

“I suspect that you are a long way away from the end of it,” Hermann answered as he pulled himself to his feet.

Newt watched him go. To their mutual surprise, he left the IV in and didn’t put up too much of a fuss when Hermann returned with the doctor.

 

\---

It felt like ages before he was allowed out of the hospital. The tests he’d been subjected to thus far were nothing in comparison to the barrage he faced during his hospital stay. Newt felt like every inch of him had been poked and prodded. Not to mention medicated. At the rate he was going, he would need one of those weekly pill things with the individual compartment for each day.

Hermann spent more time at the hospital than Newt had expected. He visited daily. Newt didn’t complain. Not when it felt like the only time he could really sleep was with Hermann’s surly presence in the chair by his bed. The doctors only encouraged him, and it seemed like Newt lost more and more fights about things like taking his medication and resting. Sure, some of the others visited, but Newt found he didn’t look forward to their presence as much as he did Hermann’s.

Hermann was the one who picked him up from the hospital when he was released. Hermann was the one who made sure he made it to his room in the Shatterdome safely. And Hermann was the one still riding his ass about following the doctors’ orders. Newt didn’t even need to set an alarm to remind himself to take his medication. He had Hermann for that. He also had Hermann insisting on regular dining hours and health-conscious meals.

His first day back, Hermann didn’t left his side until after dinner. Probably to go finish packing. Newt would have joined him if he’d known it wouldn’t start a new round of squabbling he wasn’t up to winning. It was one thing to fight about his leaving Kaiju bits on Hermann’s side of the lab. It was another to have Hermann livid about his health.

Newt took it easy. For the first time since he’d woken up in the hospital, he swore Hermann was relaxed. Not that he knew for sure, but he didn’t sense that same worried echo in the back of his mind. He still wasn’t entirely sure what to make of Hermann worrying about him, of all people. In a weird way, it was kind of nice. He hadn’t really experienced something like that since the earlier days of the Kaiju attacks. Part of him wondered if Hermann would continue to check up on him once he’d moved to Germany, but he doubted it. The time they’d spent together over the last ten years was due to their work, not to friendship, or whatever their relationship could be classified as.

Newt had spent the evening doing what little work he could for the upcoming tours. When he finally powered down his computer, it was more due to boredom than actual fatigue. Still, he slid his glasses off and tried to sleep. What had come so seemingly easy in the hospital was utterly impossible now. Midnight came and went. Though he sat in the dark, he hardly even felt tired. The part of his mind he’d come to associate with Hermann had gone silent shortly after he’d left for the evening, so he didn’t even have that to distract himself with.

Newt was about to get out of bed when he heard a light knock at his door. Frowning, he slid his glasses back into place and went to answer it. By the time he turned the handle, he knew who it was.

“I thought you were sleeping,” he said, taking in Hermann’s fully dressed state. He looked more like he was going to lead a lecture than giving a late night visit.

“I was,” Hermann answered, stepping in without his permission.

“And now you’re here?”

“I’m convinced you woke me up.”

“Me?”

Hermann didn’t offer any clarification, instead motioning him back toward the bed. Newt settled on the edge of it beside him, drumming his fingers against his knee. His bed was harder than Hermann’s. And instead of quilts, he had a comforter.

“So now you’re here to harass me because you couldn’t sleep?”

“Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?”

“Uh huh,” Newt said, sighing softly. “So now what? We sit here until one of us falls asleep? Was that your game plan?”

Hermann’s thin fingers hooked around his jaw, turning his face to his. Newt blinked back at him, eyebrows furrowing.

“What?”

Hermann ignored him in favor of pressing their lips firmly together.

A startled jolt shot through Newt. When he didn’t immediately return the kiss, Hermann became more aggressive with it and he tentatively leaned into it, confusion warring with his usually omnipresent libido. Newt expected him to pull back, but suddenly he was being pressed onto his back as Hermann carefully settled on top of him, pressing their bodies together.

Hermann drew back from the kiss only for breath and Newt blinked up at him. “Not that I’m complaining, but what was that for?”

“Shut up and take off your clothes.”

“Huh?”

“Surely a man, such as yourself, who holds six doctorates in various forms of biology knows what I am implying.” He punctuated the statement with a sharp slap to Newt’s thigh that sent the blood straight down from his brain to his cock.

Having switched to actual pajamas for once, it didn’t take long for Newt to slide out of his sleep pants and t-shirt. It was difficult with Hermann crowding him though, making physical contact inevitable with every move Newt made. Newt hesitated when it came to his boxers, but all he needed was another sharp slap from Hermann to slide out of those as well.

“You know, for someone who was in such a hurry to get me undressed, you sure are wearing a lot of—“

Hermann silenced him with a look. It wasn’t like his other stuffy professor looks. This one made Newt’s mouth go dry. He’d caught a glimpse of this side of Hermann in when they drifted. As surprising as it had been at the time, he’d never anticipated it would be directed at him. 

“Safe word, Dr. Geiszler.”

“Seriously, dude? You can’t even call me Newt when we’re about to—“

That look again. Jesus.

“Fine. Groupie.”

The bemusement didn’t extend beyond Hermann’s eyes, but Newt still saw it.

“Roll over.”

Newt wasn’t particularly shy when it came to sex, but there was something about it being Hermann that made everything more intense. He ran his tongue briefly over his lips before he complied, lifting his hips up at a nudge from Hermann.

“This is taking it easy?”

The answer came in a sharp slap against one upturned ass cheek. The sudden sting made him gasp and the pain went straight to his cock.

“I see the tattoos do not extend as far as I was afraid they would,” Hermann offered behind him, tracing the lowest, one that came to the small of his back, with a fingertip that left goosebumps in its wake.

“Hey, there’s still time,” Newt offered, rocking with the next slap, which overlaid the first. He bit back a swear, fists clenching beneath him. How Hermann put that much power behind a single strike was beyond him.

Hermann didn’t take him over his knee, but he didn’t need to. He delivered his blows expertly, bringing him to a new height with each series. Newt flinched when his palm finally came to rest against his ass and it was somehow still cooler to the touch than it should have been. Then again, Hermann always had seemed more susceptible to cold.

Newt’s thighs shook with the effort it took to hold himself upright and Hermann settled behind him, one arm bracing himself on the bed while the other was wrapped around Newt’s middle, pulling his ass flush with the hard cock straining against Hermann’s slacks. The pressure it put on his sore skin was almost unbearable and Newt gritted his teeth against the pain.

“I intend to fuck you, Dr. Geiszler,” Hermann murmured against his ear. “If you have any objections, I suggest you use your safe word. Do you understand?”

Newt nodded and suddenly the hand around his middle was pressing hard enough against his ass to make him yelp.

“Do you understand?” Hermann repeated, increasing the pressure.

“Yes, sir!”

The pressure eased, but the arm didn’t come back around his waist just yet. In the silence that followed, Newt heard Hermann’s zipper drop as well as the all-too familiar crinkle of a condom wrapper. He tried to duck his head to see what he might be getting himself into, but a sharp slap, on his upper thigh this time, led him to jerk it back upright. He did, however, manage to see Hermann duck to grab a towel from the basket half underneath his bed. He shifted as directed so that it could be laid out underneath himself to catch any mess.

A slickened fingertip brushed against his entrance and he trembled this time for an entirely different reason. Newt hadn’t time for something like this for at least two months. The closest he’d come was the brief time he’d spent with Hannibal Chau. There had been an attraction there. He’d known it in the way the man had kept touching him, but it had never gotten any further. Of course it didn’t help Chau had been eaten by a baby Kaiju, regardless of whatever rumors were circulating about him supposedly having survived. Newt had seen it with his own two eyes.

The finger circled his entrance, nail scraping lightly against the sensitive skin there, making Newt’s breath hitch. Hermann pressed in a moment later, his touch surprisingly gentle after how he’d treated him before. It was uncomfortable at first. It was always uncomfortable after too long a break, but Hermann took his time. Before he knew it, Newt was pressing back against the digit and when Hermann didn’t rebuke him, he matched his thrusts, rocking the digit deeper. A second finger followed and then a third, all of which Newt was riding by the time Hermann decided to retract them, leaving him feeling far too empty.

He opened his mouth to protest only to shout as Hermann thrust his cock into him in a single fluid motion, sinking deep and stretching him to an almost uncomfortable degree, despite all of his preparation. Newt panted loudly as he struggled to adjust, but Hermann gave him time, hand brushing back and forth just below his navel in a way that both comforted Newt and drove him crazy.

As soon as his muscles relaxed again, Hermann’s arm was back around his waist, holding him in place as he started up a brutal rhythm that Newt could do little more than conform to. His fingers tightened into the sheets as sweat beaded on his forehead, sliding down and nearly going into his eyes due to the angle he was at, his face almost pressed into his pillow. Hermann was using him, putting his own pleasure first, and all it did was make Newt’s cock unbearably hard in return. Newt’s hips were too high for any real friction, but that need wavered when Hermann drove suddenly against his prostate, drawing a strangled cry from him.

“H-Herman! C-C’mon, man!”

Hermann ignored him, riding him harder, striking that spot with each thrust. Newt’s breathing quickened, but it wasn’t enough to push him over the edge and he grew increasingly desperate. Hermann suddenly stilled behind him, groaning against the back of his ear as he came. The sound was enough to send Newt over the edge, but Hermann’s fingers tightened around the base of his cock, preventing him from achieving his own release.

“Fuck! Fuck!” he protested, knuckles white from how tightly he gripped the sheets. “I swear to god, Hermann, I—“

“Dr. Gottlieb.”

Newt barely heard it through the heavy beat of his own pulse in his ears. “What?”

“Call me Dr. Gottlieb and I will let you come.”

“Are you fucking joking?!”

“Do I seem as if I am joking, Dr. Geiszler?”

The way he said it, voice husky, sent a shiver down Newt’s spine. He tried to give a rock of his hips, but with no luck. “Goddammit,” he snarled, sweat sliding down the side of his throat.

“I am waiting, Dr. Geiszler. Do not make me force you to beg.”

The small part of Newt’s brain that was still capable of actual thought wanted nothing more than to see what Hermann could do to make him beg, but the delay of his orgasm was quickly becoming too much to bear.

“D-Dr. Gottlieb!” he gasped.

The fingers around his cock released immediately and he shouted the name a second time as he came in hard spurts beneath him, muscles contracting around the cock still buried in his ass.

Newt could hardly breathe in the aftermath, let alone do much else. His glasses were threatening to slip off entirely and his body ached from holding his position for so long. He distantly felt Hermann pull out, and Hermann lowered him to the bed after, careful to avoid the mess they’d made. He was still laying there when Hermann drew a handkerchief from his pocket and mopped them both up. Belatedly Newt realized the other man was still fully dressed. If he’d had the energy, that thought alone might have gotten his cock back up.

He watched with detached interest as Hermann grabbed the towel he’d come on, putting it who knew where and revealing the clean sheets beneath.

It had been a long time since Newt felt so bone weary. Not tired per se, just physically spent. He couldn’t have lifted his head let alone done much else.

“Are you leaving?” he asked, realizing Hermann had righted his clothes. The words came out almost slurred.

Hermann arched a brow before settling beside him, wrapping his arm around his waist and pulling Newt back against his front. It put pressure on his ass once more, but Newt liked the reminder.

“Seriously, dude? I know you have sleep clothes,” he murmured, eyes already half closed.

“Do you want me to leave you so that I can retrieve them?”

“No.”

“Then stop complaining, Dr. Geiszler.”

His name on Hermann’s tongue sent another wave of heat through him and Newt swallowed. It was going to be a while before he could hear that and not wind up hot and bothered.

“Since when do you want to have sex with me?” he managed, trying to force the questions out before he fell asleep and forgot them.

“Since this evening. You seemed like you needed it.”

“What? I needed a spanking because I was keeping you up?”

“You needed someone to tire you out.” He paused. “And you needed me. I could feel it. That, and the doctors stated that my presence seemed to soothe you. It’s not uncommon in Jaeger pilots, to crave the company of one another. There is a reason you rarely see them apart. Our…bond may not be quantifiable, but I believe it exists. Whether or not it is a lifelong matter remains to be seen. Did you take your medication?”

“Yes.”

Newt nearly whined when Hermann squeezed his ass.

“Don’t lie to me.”

Hermann shifted behind him, helping him up enough so that he could take his pills with the water he provided. Hermann used the same water a moment later to take his medication.

“We’re a bunch of old men,” Newt murmured as Hermann pulled the blankets over the both of them.

He felt more than heard Hermann snort behind him.

“Get your rest. We’ll worry about everything else tomorrow.”

Worry was a good word for it, what with the threat of Hermann still possibly going to Germany looming over him. But something about the possessive way Hermann held him eased that concern enough for Newt to drift off.

And if Tendo forgot to knock when he stopped by the next morning, well, that was his problem.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Hermann/Newton fic, so I hope I did the characters justice! Please ignore the wacky formatting for the breaks. It was late and I was too tired to fight with it anymore. Also, if you're a tumblr addict (like me), you can find me at therudesea.tumblr.com.


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